Wives Caution: Hazardous Work

By Janice Castro

Pursuing her own career was the last thing on Maureen Zack's mind. She and her husband of 30 years, a Michigan surgeon, had their hands full raising seven children in an affluent Detroit suburb. But eight years ago, their marriage fell apart just as Dr. Zack was beset with financial problems. Suddenly, Mrs. Zack, who had not worked full time outside the home for 18 years, was taking baby-sitting jobs and cleaning offices at night to provide for her family. Four of her children dropped out of college for a while to help pay the bills. "I felt so desperate," she says. "My skills were so obsolete."

Still, Maureen Zack was luckier than most. She eventually won a modest divorce settlement and undertook a course of studies that led to a job as a computer instructor. Not many of the nation's 16 million so-called displaced homemakers land quite so squarely on their feet. Having worked full time in the home, they are often devastated by the economic wind shear that hits when they lose their husbands because of death, divorce, separation or abandonment. Lacking job skills, nearly 3 out of 5 live at or below the poverty level. Many more American women are vulnerable to the same fate: about 22 million married women are out of the labor force, dependent on their husbands' income. And many of these, asserts the Displaced Homemakers Network, based in Washington, "are just a man away from poverty."

The rising rates of mid-life divorce are swelling these financially battered ranks. The advent of no-fault and equitable-distribution divorce laws, which have greatly reduced alimony payments, have left many full-time homemakers out in the cold. Says Curtis Tillman, chief judge of the superior court in DeKalb County, Ga.: "Society no longer believes that a husband should support his wife. Now juries and judges see things as a partnership."

The most pitiable of the displaced homemakers may be the 58% who are over 65. For many of them, the rules have changed too late in the game. Charlee Lambert, 67, for example, was married to a former Ford Motor Co. executive for 41 years and raised six children before the couple split up. Now she works two full-time jobs and shares her home with her adult daughter, her daughter's boyfriend and her mother; she also takes in boarders. Another divorced woman, who was married 40 years, moved in with her parents -- now in their late 70s -- while she got her footing. Social Security and pensions are often little help. A woman married for more than 10 years typically collects no more than two-thirds the Social Security that she and her husband would have received. Ex-wives and widows rarely get more than half their spouse's pension.

Overcoming the sheer paralyzing fear of the workplace is often the toughest hurdle. Many women have no idea what to wear to a job interview and no sense of their abilities, and the bills are piling up. In most parts of the country, though, workshops on how to make the transition and find jobs are available. Information is also offered by the Displaced Homemakers Network. Older women are often surprised to find that they can learn new skills such as computer processing. For younger women, the lesson is one best learned early: more than ever, the job of full-time homemaker may be the riskiest profession to choose.

With reporting by Leslie Dickstein/New York and Joseph J. Kane/Atlanta